This award from the Major Research Instrumentation (MRI) Program will enable the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry at The University of Texas in Austin to acquire a Raman microscope/nanoscope. With these new capabilities, faculty will carry out the following investigations: a) semiconductor materials characterization; b) quantum confinement in group IV nanostructures; c) compositional studies of advanced photoresists; d) nanoscale compositional mapping of nanostructured materials for electrochemical energy conversion/storage; e) light-emitting polymers; f) characterization of polymer micelles adsorbed on surfaces; g) the nanomechanics and interphase chemistry of interfacial fracture; and h) Raman imaging as a diagnostic probe for cervical cancer.
Optical and electron microscopy have informed essentially every area of modern science and technology whereas the vibrational spectroscopies (infrared and Raman) have been the most incisive probes of structure and bonding in molecules and solids. Recent developments in vibrational microscopy have made it possible to characterize materials on the micron and submicron length scales, probing, for example, chemical composition, crystalline phase, microcrystallite orientation and stress in both homogeneous and heterogeneous samples. Raman microscopy has very high intrinsic spatial resolution, and sample preparation is minimal. These studies will have a strong impact in a wide variety of fields including microelectronics, optoelectronics and polymer science.
